A name, image, and likeness (NIL) executive at the University of Alabama has been arrested as part of a human trafficking operation.
Robert Aaron Suttles, who serves as the content director for ‘Yea Alabama,’ the SEC powerhouse’s official NIL entity, was arrested along with 14 others in Shelby County, Alabama, on Thursday.
Before working as an NIL content director, Suttles worked as a sportswriter for The Tuscaloosa News and The Athletic.
Suttles has been charged with soliciting prostitution after he allegedly paid $100 to engage in sexual activity, WRBC News reports.
The University of Alabama told WRBC that Suttles is not an employee of the school. ‘Yea Alabama’ also issued a statement clarifying their relationship with the embattled NIL executive.
“The individual is suspended and is not performing any work for us,” Yea Alabama said in a statement to AOL.com. “The matter involves personal conduct unconnected to any Yea Alabama business. A legal proceeding is pending, and our internal review is ongoing, so we have no further comment.”
The Shelby County Drug Enforcement Task Force carried out the arrests. Two of the other 15 men who were apprehended also face drug charges.
“We will not tolerate the victimization of vulnerable women here in Shelby County,” said Lt. Clayton Smith, commander of the Shelby County Drug Task Force.
“I believe that no woman wakes up each morning and chooses to sell their bodies because they just want to. There is always an underlying reason that they feel they have to do this to live and have no other option. We have a duty to protect them just like any other citizen. I want to thank the investigators for their passion and work in this operation.”
The attention drawn to Suttles due to his arrest caused social media users to focus on the pinned post on his X page. One that contains a well-known picture of then-Alabama coach Nick Saban along with a caption from Suttles that seems disturbing in retrospect.
Suttles has since been released from Shelby County Jail on a $1,000 bond, AOL.com reports.